The qualifying offer will be $17.2 million this offseason, and the Mets are among the teams that have decisions upcoming.

It appears unlikely a new collective bargaining agreement will be in place to affect the qualifying offer system this offseason. From what I have heard, nothing has been finalized on the issue. But one concept that has been discussed is to forbid the qualifying offer from being put on free agents in consecutive years (beginning in the 2017-18 offseason).

For example, Ian Desmond and Dexter Fowler each had their free-agent market harmed last offseason because many teams do not want to give up either a first- or second-round pick to sign a good-but-not-great player. Both are free agents this coming offseason and are likely to have the qualifying offer put on them yet again.

Teams have until five days after the World Series to say whether they will put a qualifying offer on a player. Some are no-brainers such as the Blue Jays with Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, the Dodgers with Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner, and the Mets with Yoenis Cespedes, should he opt out of his contract (as he can do within three days after the World Series).

But the Mets will have a tougher choice with Neil Walker. The second baseman had back surgery Sept. 9 to address a herniated disk. Will the Mets know enough about his recovery in the coming weeks to put the offer on him?

A player has seven days to accept or reject the offer. If accepted, the player is signed for $17.2 million next year. If he rejects, the player becomes a free agent and – if he signs elsewhere – the team that lost the free agent gets a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds of next June’s draft, and the signing team either loses a first-round pick (if it had one of the 20 best records in 2016) or a second-rounder (if had among the 10 worst records).